


Bear

by SLWalker



Series: Game of Thrones: Alderaan [12]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types
Genre: Fluff, Happy Relationships, Humor, Motherhood, Multi, Polyamory, Skinny Dipping, Swimming
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-02
Updated: 2018-03-02
Packaged: 2019-03-26 05:23:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,065
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13851000
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SLWalker/pseuds/SLWalker
Summary: Mazi goes hiking and surprises her children in-- an unexpected manner.





	Bear

**Author's Note:**

  * For [B_Radley](https://archiveofourown.org/users/B_Radley/gifts).



She could hear them laughing long before she saw them.

The air was warm and smelled like sun-baked dirt and green, growing life; even though she needed a cane these days to make this sort of walk, and even though she couldn’t handle the harder trails her youngest could traverse with almost unreal grace, she still liked to hike when she could.  It was in this world, this isolated natural world, that she felt closest to her brother and to her parents; where she felt closest to her husband, even.  It was in the house back well behind her that three of their natural children were conceived; it was on this property they came together, when their lives outside of this pastoral wilderness were defined on respect and affection and differing interests.

It was only here that she and Prestor had ever truly been wife and husband, and Mazi was all right with that; she knew, too, that he had brought lovers here many a time, and for that matter, so had she.  It was here that they could indulge in such intimacy without worrying about being spied by rivals, and neither of them grudged the other that pleasure.

Her children -- natural, adopted and by marriage -- now did the same, when they could.

This was not some other-world; this was Alderaan, as much as her cities and peaks and valleys and plains.  But there was a simple peace to be found a hundred kilometers from the nearest neighbor, and where the only visitors one might get would be from boats travelling on the river, or hikers who requested permission to cross their property lines.

The Organa family had owned this property so far back that it predated electronic record keeping; the house currently sitting on it was a very well-maintained eight hundred years old, and before that, another had once sat on the same spot, and before that, yet another.  Even after the entire First Range had been declared protected, they had been grandfathered in and were allowed to keep their property, as had everyone else who had lived there.

It reminded her of House Mandirly’s Estate; unlike House Organa’s, her family’s holdfast was much further away from Aldera, in a broad valley where deciduous trees grew before giving way to the evergreens further up the slopes.  A natural wall was formed by the valley itself; the lake at one end, and the stream leading to the Mission River which, eventually, led to the Triplehorn, as all waters did in that part of their world.  They were a lesser house, largely devoted to working their land and investing in various agricultural ventures, which paid back enough dividends for House Mandirly to be comfortable; marrying into House Organa and losing Tayvor meant that Mazi’s valley was under the care of cousins now, though she was still considered the head of that estate, as well as this one.

Going there would hurt, though she would once she handed the crown to Breha, but for now, this place was a good balm on her still occasionally sore soul, just as it had always been refuge and retreat.

She picked her way along carefully; she knew if she had called, one of the others would have come back to help her, but she didn’t want them to have to worry about providing an arm for their mother when they could just be enjoying themselves.  All three of them had unique pressures they had to live with in Aldera; it was really only here that they, too, could simply  _be._

“I swear, if a fish bites it off, both of you are gonna be sorry.”

Well.  That was quite some sentence.  Mazi’s eyebrow went up, but she kept on the same relatively sedate pace she had set.

Maul snorted back, in clear humor, “My lure’s more interesting anyway.”

“Oh, stop.  Both of you are amazing bait, but not for  _fish.”_

“C’mon, Bre, you’ve seen some of the monsters in this watershed.” Bail made a huffy noise. “My junk would make a perfectly adequate meal for one of them.”

“Take a chance!”  Breha’s voice went singsong as she added, “I’ll make it worth your while!”

It was the most perfect of timing.  Mazi drew upon a lifetime of composure to keep a straight face when she stepped up over the ridge of the path that led to the swimming hole, only to be confronted with the sight of her firstborn with his thumbs hooked into the waistband of his swim shorts, crack showing.

Maul’s eyes went saucer wide and he went, “Oh f--”

Bail froze in place. “--there’s a bear behind me, isn’t there?”

There  _were_ bears -- and manka cats and every other kind of forest wildlife -- in this area, but her beloved eldest son provided Mazi with the best imaginable ammunition, and so she took it: “My darling, I’m going to take that as being a reference to my occasional temperament and not my appearance.”

Bail leapt and spun around, instantly going red all the way down to his  _chest._   He gaped, mouth working, even as Breha started laughing so hard her voice echoed against the rocks, where the waterfall fed the pool before threading its way into a creek leading down to the Palama River.

“--hi, Mom.”  Bail’s shorts were definitely back on now.  In fact, they were hitched up to nearly his belly button.

Mazi made a long show of eying the wet swim clothes laying on the rocks, and then eyed the other two down in the pool, both of them sunk now to their necks.  The water was clear, though the angle was such that their privacy in their nudity was preserved.  Then she looked back at Bail, amused. “Your father and I conceived Tia on a blanket on those rocks over there,” she said, nodding in that direction, chewing down a smirk. “No fish got  _his_  junk.”

Bail somehow managed to turn even  _more_  red, and Maul apparently couldn’t take any more, because now he was laughing _his_ head off, joining Breha, and almost ended up underwater from the force of it.

Mazi waved them off, then turned back and started back for the house; after brushing off a halting offer to walk her back, she waited until she was out of earshot before laughing herself to tears at the remembered expressions on their faces.


End file.
